Opera

Falstaff

Title Role in Falstaff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, July 2018

Express

The celebrated Welsh bass-baritone has the height, girth (thanks to a fat suit), resonant tone and sheer bravura of acting. His is a Falstaff of boundless chutzpah, greedy and self-deluding, yet with an underlying twinkle.

Title Role in Falstaff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, July 2018

The Guardian

The plum was Bryn Terfel, magnificent in the title role, the patina of nearly two decades’ experience giving a salty wisdom to his “Fat Knight”. Whether required to boom or play at coy falsetto or drop to fairy-light pianissimo, Terfel can do it.

Title Role in Falstaff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, July 2018

Standard

Central to the revival’s success is the larger-than-life Falstaff of Terfel. He conveys the anger and pomposity of the man, full of his sense of entitlement, but also his world-weariness. We may not exactly warm to his conviction that he’s God’s gift to women, but we recognise it. And Terfel captures all this not only in his saucer-like eyes but in an impressive repertoire of tonal registers.

Concert performance of Falstaff with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, January 2017

Die Walküre

Concert Performance of Die Walküre at the Edinburgh International Festival, August 2017

Opera

The star casting was Sir Bryn Terfel as Wotan, and he did not disappoint. He sounded fresh, comfortable, imperious, stamping his presence in physique and temperament.

Concert Performance of Die Walküre at the Edinburgh International Festival, August 2017

The Spectator

Terfel’s voice is leaner than it used to be; his commitment to every word and note of this role more passionate than ever.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. March 2017

The Stage

Bryn Terfel is superb in Kasper Holten’s final production for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. March 2017

The Guardian

Bryn Terfel is charismatic as ever as Sachs, and touching in later scenes as he realises Eva is going her own way.

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. March 2017

Classical Source

Bryn Terfel, a Sachs of many years’ standing, sounded at ease with the higher-written music. He delivered a lovely, interior ‘Wahn’ monologue and underpinned the rapture of the Quintet. You can’t help feelings of affection towards him and his Sachs.

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. March 2017

Seen and Heard International

Bryn Terfel's plainspoken, larger-than-life, slightly gruff Hans Sachs is more like his predecessor at Covent Garden, John Tomlinson, than the warm, expressive and sympathetic paterfamilias Hans Sachs of Norman Bailey. Throughout, Terfel downplays the more philosophical side of his character, whilst in typical fashion, he delivers the text masterfully and retains sufficient stamina to get right through to the end of his clarion closing ‘Verachtet mir die Meister nicht’ without running out of steam; something Tomlinson never quite could in my experience.

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, June 2010

Financial Times

Bryn Terfel singing his first Hans Sachs, exceeded expectations, delighting the home crowd with his stage presence and wrap-around vocal charm. He strides the stage like a gentle giant, oozing generosity, wisdom and masculine maturity. Terfel inhabits the German text from within and boasts stamina to spare, inspiring everyone.

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, June 2010

The Telegraph

Bryn Terfel sang his first Sachs. It was no disappointment: the central monologues were superbly declaimed, and the man’s suppressed anger at the stupidity surrounding him was as powerfully drawn as his rueful wisdom

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, June 2010

The Times

Everyone expected Bryn Terfel to dominate as Hans Sachs and he does. Terfel sings thrillingly, unleashing spine-tingling vocal reserves at the very point where most Sachses wilt.

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, June 2010

Western Mail

Terfel played a psychologically multi-faceted Hans Sachs, as singer and actor balanced the requirements of power and gentleness.

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, June 2010

The Arts Desk

Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, June 2010

Semi-Staged Concert Performance of Tosca at the Wales Millennium Centre, November 2015

The Arts Desk

Terfel, in his most powerful voice, dominated the stage with this Scarpia that is demonice without quite growing horns and a forked tail.

Scarpia in Tosca for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

The Telegraph

What lifted the proceedings to another plane, however, was Bryn Terfel’s magnificently creepy, immaculately vocalized Scarpia. As a study in the poisonous but charismatic combination of sexual allure and psychotic sadism, it can’t have been equalled since Tito Gobbi’s heyday.

Scarpia in Tosca for Bayerische Staatsoper

Musicalcriticism.com

Bryn Terfel’s Scarpia was deliciously loathsome, parading a disdainful arrogance that sneered at all the lower forms of life and relishing the suffering he inflicted on them.

Boris Godunov

Title Role in Boris Godunov for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, March 2016

The Guardian

Terfel makes his character unusually sympathetic. His voice may not be ideally dark or sonorous enough for such a definitively Russian role, but his singing is so carefully phrased and nuanced that it hardly matters.

Title Role in Boris Godunov for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, March 2016

The Times

Bryn Terfel’s mesmerising Boris is first among equals in a terrific cast.

Fiddler on the Roof

Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, June 2015

Financial Times

Terfel’s Tevye. Big of personality, huge of voice, he brings Tevye to life on a positively Wagnerian scale, part Dutchman (the wandering Jew), part Hans Sachs (loving, wise, forgiving), part Wotan (powerless leader of his clan) – a giant performance in tiny Grange Park.

Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, June 2015

The Times

The casting of the Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel as Tevye is an emphatic success. His Tevye is earthy, intelligent, and huge-hearted.

Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, June 2015

The Telegraph

Burly and bearded, he looks the part comfortably and sings throughout with ease and clarity- ‘If I were a rich man’ is nicely dispatched, without mugging or over-selling the sly humour.

Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, June 2015

The Observer

Forget Mozart, Verdi, Wagner or the many other operatic composers that have made Terfel famous. He has always understood musical theatre. He can act. He has a vital understanding of text and sings with heart. As he showed recently in Sweeney Todd, he can rein in his voice and in so doing enhance the efforts of others. With only a hint of pathos, he rolled his magnificent voice round If I Were a Rich man as if every syllable counted, and won our hearts.

Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, June 2015

Music OMH

Terfel does not disappoint as he know how to shape his voice to suit particular part. That alone is enough to create a strong performance, and so the fact that it is backed by such a world class bass-baritone instrument feels almost like a bonus. His acting is also highly engaging and he nails ‘If I were a rich man’.

Sweeney Todd

Title Role in Sweeney Todd for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, March 2015

The Guardian

Terfel’s tones have a heroic lustre. Terfel is also a strong actor.

Title Role in Sweeney Todd for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, March 2015

The Telegraph

At the London Coliseum, on the other hand, a whacking great banquet is on offer, with a cast led by a major film star in Emma Thompson and a Wagnerian heavyweight in Bryn Terfel. Terfel’s Demon Barber may be a familiar quantity in London, but he continues to command the role with a laconic intensity which makes Todd’s monomania all the more mesmerising. Singing with steely restraint and a welcome lack of rasp or rant, he portrays a Byronic wanderer, with a tormented inner life.

Title Role in Sweeney Todd for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, March 2015

Digital Spy

Terfel deserves high acclaim for his powerful interpretation of Sweeney Todd. Both menacing and childlike, it is almost impossible to take your eyes off him whenever he is on stage. He is a truly huge talent, in every sense of the word.

Title Role in Sweeney Todd for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, March 2015

The Guardian

Terfel has electrifying presence and makes the rest of the West End cast seem better, bigger, more compelling. He maintains absolute vocal control and physical stillness. In Pretty Women, in Johanna, and so too in his own, final Ballad of Sweeney Todd, his voice is velvet smooth and beautiful.

Title Role in Sweeney Todd for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, March 2015

whatsonstage.com

The best-sung Sweeney of all time. His voice has a rumbling rage and range that’s simply thrilling to hear.

Title Role in Sweeney Todd at the Lincoln Center, New York, March 2014

The New York Times

His [Bryn Terfel] rich, pitch-dark voice soared into the auditorium with an enveloping intensity, filling the hall with Sweeney’s thundering avowals of vengeance for the brutal treatment of his beloved wife.

Title Role in Sweeney Todd for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2002

The New York Times

The Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel may have been born to sing a lot of roles, Wotan among them. But it would be difficult to imagine a more perfect marriage of role, voice and stage personality than his performance of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Mr. Terfel is a true bass-baritone, rolling out sonorous, ominous rivers of sound. Furthermore, his larger-than-life frame and personality suit the character to perfection.

Der Fliegende Hollander

Title Role in Der Fliegende Hollander for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, February 2015

The Telegraph

Bryn Terfel has been singing the Dutchman intermittently for nearly a decade now, and his reading of the character has continually matured – a baleful Byronic presence, he does more with less histrionically, suggesting a man whose anger and remorse smoulders rather than blazes.
The agonized opening monologue is sung with an intense restraint along a firmly sculpted line, and he remains rock-steady when the orchestra is all thunder and lightning.

Title Role in Der Fliegende Hollander for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, February 2015

The Guardian

Bryn Terfel returns to the title role, and again brings to it a compelling intensity.

Der Fliegende Hollander at the Festival Hall with the Zurich Opera, December 2012

The Times

When Bryn Terfel is in this form you wonder whether anyone has ever sung Wagner with more power, passion, dramatic flair or vocal energy. Simply the way that he uses those pungent German consonants to convey anger, sardonic self-loathing, momentary hope or nihilistic despair is a masterclass. But this portrayal had far more than magnificent technique; it seemed to embody the seared soul of the doomed Dutchman.

Title Role in Der Fliegender Hollander for the Royal Opera House, February 2009

Financial Times

It is not just that the vocal range suits him perfectly, or the deep resonance of his voice, but how his quiet singing plumbs the Dutchman’s agony fathoms-deep where the other singers no not reach.

Title Role in Der Fliegende Hollander for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, February 2009

Online review London.com

In well-articulated German and with masterful vocal control he was able to express, at once, dignity, defiance, torment and overwhelming longing for a woman who would save him from his curse. He was menacing and tender, brooding and haunted, exhauseted by his destiny, and yet full of hope.

Title Role in Der Fliegende Hollander for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, February 2009

Financial Times

It is not just that the vocal range suits him perfectly, or the deep resonance of his voice, but how his quiet singing plumbs the Dutchman’s agony fathoms-deep where the other singers no not reach.

L'Elisir d'Amore

Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, November 2014

Wales Online

Terfel makes light work of the patter requirements and other vocal requirements of the role. What sets him apart is the ease in anything that he selects combined with just splendid comic timing. Here as a rather grubby quack doctor Terfel somehow manages to create a character who is both rather seedy and exploitative but hugely likeable.

Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, October 2014

The Times

Within seconds of Bryn Terfel’s arrival on stage at the Royal Opera House as Doctor Dulcamara, the travelling salesman with a cure for every ailment (spoiler: they’re all bogus), he has threatened to steal the show just by the way he exits his battered old lorry, in a grubby avalanche of snotty hankies, sweet wrappers and accumulated filth.

Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, October 2014

Backtrack

Terfel played the Covent Garden audience like a fiddle and his antics constantly drew the eye.

Faust

Mephistopheles in Faust for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, April 2014

The Telegraph

His characterization was electrifying throughout: what a wonderful operatic actor he is.

Wagner's Ring

Wotan in Das Rheingold for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2012

FT.com

Gloriously sung, imposingly played as the patrician leader of a dying breed, Terfel’s Wotan is a match for any, past or present. His ability to sing quietly and look intimately into his character’s heart provides a depth of understanding.

Die Walkure for the Metropolitan Opera, New York

SF Gate

The Welsh bass-baritone creates a Wotan of tremendous power and poignancy, a God, keenly aware of his own imminent demise and helpless to stop it. The role is an endurance test for any singer, and Terfel at times pushes his voice to its limits, but never quite over. He ends his long scene of farewell to Brunnhilde in Act 3 sounding as fresh as when the evening started.

Gianni Schicchi

Title Role in Gianni Schicchi for the Royal Opera House

Evening Standard

The title role might have been made for Bryn Terfel, physically dominant, soaring over the orchestra with ease. His comic timing is immaculate, every flicker of an eyebrow bristling with wit and purpose; sly, oafish, hilarious, cunning.

Concerts / Recitals

Concert with the Orchestra Gulbenkian Lisboa at Palau de la Música Catalana, April 2018

Title Role in a concert performance of Falstaff at Verbier Festival, July 2016

Opera

Terfel is a great ensemble player, generous with his experience and careful not to overshadow his fellow cast members, and still sounds miraculously fresh in the long sung passages and nimble in the pater even though it's been 17 years since his first Falstaff. The role fits him like a glove; he can switch the mood from comedy to cruelty with the lift of an eyebrow or the curl of a lip, and the sight of the formerly great Sir John squeezed into a grey jersey 'onesie' after his ducking in the Thames provoked a wave of sympathy before the laughter began.

Llangollen Eisteddfod's 70th Gala Concert, July 2016

The Daily Post

Llangollen Eisteddfod’s 70th gala concert was an electrifying display of range, power and subtlety from opera superstar Bryn Terfel. The bass-baritone from Pant Glas, a favourite with Llangollen Eisteddfod audiences, was on top form as he sang operatic arias, songs from musical theatre and a hymn written by local-born composer W. S. Gwyn Williams.
He thrilled the audience with a powerful rendition of Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge as the Wotan of Wagner’s Das Rheingold and delighted them with his version of If I were a rich man from musical Fiddler on the Roof.
His characterisation showed clearly what a wonderful operatic actor he is. This was a concert that will live long in the memory. Bravo!

Recital at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, July 2015

The Classical Review

There is little doubt that Bryn Terfel remains one of the most versatile performers on the music scene today. But it is in the intimate world of the art song where Terfel's talents as singer and actor can be at their most poignant, and he is capable of mining drama even from smaller works. That was the case Thursday night at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall, where the singer offered bracing accounts of songs by German, French and Welsh composers. The latter was a rare treat and provided some of the evening's most colourful musical moments.

Recital at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, July 2015

The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Recitals by the great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel have evolved, over the years; into love-ins. Audiences adore Bryn, and no wonder. He has a powerfully beautiful voice, is a charismatic actor, and has enough charm for a dozen singers. Bryn is a real stage animal, and if allowed, he would happily keep his programs going until well into the night. Surely, nothing would make his audiences happier.

Act 3, Walküre, Wales Millennium Centre, April 2015

Arts Scene in Wales

Bryn singing the god Wotan with cracklingly intense pronunciation

Act 3, Walküre, Wales Millennium Centre, April 2015

Wales Arts Review

In superb voice, Terfel embodied with every musical and physical gesture this towering and complex character, whose unresolveable, often self-made dilemmas lie at the heart of the entireRing.

Act 3, Walküre, Wales Millennium Centre, April 2015

The Guardian

Terfel, both demonic and tender, nuancing words with the artistry that gives his every phrase and gesture a vibrant immediacy, was in commanding form.

Concert at Leeuwin Estate Winery, Australia, March 2015

The West Australian

Bryn Terfel was cruising on Saturday night. His voice rose effortlessly from that barrel chest and out through whiskery jaws to punch the cool night air. Terfel delivered his material with a confident cheeky charm

Broadway Classics Concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, March 2015

The Age

A relaxed Terfel strutted the stage, clearly enjoying giving out favourites such as If I Were a Rich Man, Oh What a Beautiful Morning and I’ve Got Plenty O’Nuttin. Becalmed for a trio of Irish and Welsh folk songs including Danny Boy and All Through the Night, Terfel proved it’s all about the voice, showing exquisite control.

Broadway Classics Concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, March 2015

Simon Parris: Man in Chair

From the outset, a hallmark of Terfel’s style was his relaxed, amiable stage manner. It was clear that he was extremely well rehearsed, knowing the songs inside out, yet he made each number seem spontaneous and fresh, as if not only the sentiments of the lyrics but also the dynamics and tempo of the music were just occurring to him as he went along.

'Bad Boys' Scandinavian Concert Tour

Hufudstadsbladet, Helsinki

The roof at Finlandia lifted already during the first aria at Bryn Terfel ‘s concert. His strong personality and intelligent analysis of lyrics and music is extremely entertaining and irresistible. Add ingenious choice of repertoire.
What makes Bryn Terfel stand out compared to other baritones? It’s of course his personality: a contrasting mix of a big “brutal” man with a formidable voice, a sensible soul with an extremely intelligent sense of humor and an accomplished musician with a flair for nuances and sophisticated interpretation of lyrics. He sounds great on his records, but live he is so much better.

Recital at Carnegie Hall, New York

The New York Times

Mr. Terfel loves words, loves the sounds of words and loves giving them to his audience in huge bunches of variegated colors. He can roar – with pain, with pleasure, with fierce indignation, filling the hall with full, strong tone. But he can also coo and purr at an extreme pianissimo, making a sound that stays audible only because there is so much in it to feel, as well as to hear.

Recital at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore

Today

Vocally, Terfel has it all – a resounding instrument, huge when it has to be, capable of infinite shades of colour, from shimmering pianissimi to heroic climaxes capable of shaking the very hall in which he sings…. The words were married perfectly to the music, evoking the silence and earthiness of the English countryside….In ending with Schubert’s Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen, Terfel again showed his consummate artistry and possibility for greatness in Lieder, completing quietly an evening that had been pure enjoyment.

Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London

The Times

Majestic in voice, massive in stature, Bryn Terfel effortlessly hijacked the Last Night of the Proms.

Recordings

Homeward Bound Album for Deutsche Grammophon, September 2013

Limelight Magazine

Terfel’s hale, resonant bass-baritone is at its most electrifying at the bottom of his range, as when he dips down in the simple melody of the title track.

Homeward Bound Album for Deutsche Grammophon, September 2013

Opera News

I would be lying if I said Terfel’s “What a Wonderful World” didn’t bring a broad smile to my face and a tear to my eye. It was mainly the wonder of Terfel’s voice and its way with words, music and meaning. So impressive is Terfel’s caressing of every word of “What a Wonderful World” – every vowel-sound, every meaning, every mood – so un-contrived is his placing of its consonants, that I immediately linked the little ditty to one of Schubert’s. Terfel bought his honest (dare I say transcendent) musicality to bear. In “What a Wonderful World”, he elevates the songwriters… but he elevates himself and his remarkable instrument, too.

Homeward Bound Album for Deutsche Grammophon, September 2013

Classic FM

He’s an eloquent actor as well as a singer, and you swallow every word he utters in “Homeward Bound”, a relaxed, warming collection…upholstered with the soft-grained voices of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir…Terfel, most importantly, never sounds like a tonsil superstar standing at a mike. Singing about buffalos or Jehovah, the great Bryn still has power to make us believe..

Bad Boys Album for Deutsche Grammophon, October 2009

The Independent

As a bass-baritone, Bryn Terfel regularly has to wear the metaphorical black hat in the standard operatic value-system, so this anthology of great bad-guy roles, from Iago and Mephistopheles to Sweeney Todd and Mack The Knife, is custom-built to showcase his dark, brooding qualities. It includes two Satans and a taunting title presence redolent with sinister insouciance in Boito's Mefistofele. Elsewhere, evil ranges from Donizetti's wheedling snake-oil salesman Dulcamara and Gershwin's drug-dealer Sportin' Life, to the blackly nihilistic Sweeney Todd and Iago. It culminates in Terfel's bravura performance of an excerpt from Don Giovanni in which he plays Il Commendatore, Leporello and Don Giovanni.

Bad Boys Album for Deutsche Grammophon, October 2009

The Star – Ledger NJ

Terfel is peerlessly thrilling as Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, and he sings the daylights out of Gershwin’s ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’

Bad Boys Album for Deutsche Grammophon, October 2009

MusicWeb International

Terfel convincingly pulls off this challenging recital of opera and musical ‘Bad Boy’ characters. Marvelously sung and characterised with great affection, it’s not surprising that the bass-baritone has achieved such elevated heights of popularity. I found this disc wonderful entertainment from start to finish.

Scarborough Fair/First Love Album for Deutsche Grammophon, August 2008

The Times

A born communicator who loves words as much as music, he has reached out to audiences way beyond the rarefied temples of opera house and recital hall

Scarborough Fair/First Love Album for Deutsche Grammophon, August 2008

BBC Music Magazine

The mastery with which he blends words and notes is much in evidence. There’s a wide range of dynamics in his performaces……the results are lovely.

Scarborough Fair/First Love Album for Deutsche Grammophon, August 2008

Gramophone

Characteristically he lavishes as much care on illuminating the poetry as he does on shaping the melodic line

Wagner Arias Recording for Deutsche Grammophon

Opera

Terfel brings a more beautiful voice to this repertory than anyone currently singing it. The sound is full and rich, vibrant throughout its range. Terfel demonstrates that Wagner benefits from attention to beauty of tone as much as Mozart does. And he shows a lieder singer’s concern with details and diction…Terfel is able to apply pressure on the voice without compromising its quality; he combines intensity of utterance with lustrous tone.

Falstaff Recording for Deutsche Grammophon

The Sunday Times

Bryn Terfel may be young (ish) for “Old Jack”, but vocally, he is in his prime, and he glides through the treacherous passages with effortless ease. This is the most charismatic and beautifully sung Falstaff on disc since Tito Gobbi’s classic performance for Karajan in the mid-1950s. As “international” Falstaffs go, this is as good as it gets today.

Tutto Mozart Album for Deutsche Grammophon

Western Mail

As always, he inhabits the characters with absolute authority, integrity and strength, while duets with soprano Miah Persson and mezzo-soprano Christine Rice sparkle with chemistry.

Tutto Mozart Album for Deutsche Grammophon

The Star Ledger

Terfel sings with his usual mix of power, subtlety and likeability.

Wagner Arias Album for Deutsche Grammophon

Opera

Terfel brings a more beautiful voice to this repertory than anyone currently singing it. The sound is full and rich, vibrant throughout its range. Terfel demonstrates that Wagner benefits from attention to beauty of tone as much as Mozart does. And he shows a lieder singer’s concern with details and diction…Terfel is able to apply pressure on the voice without compromising its quality; he combines intensity of utterance with lustrous tone.

This Artist Biography was last updated on 21 March 2019. It is our policy to update biographies every six months. If this information is to be used after 21 September 2019 please contact us and we shall be delighted to supply you with the latest version by return.